On its release in 1997, the film Good Will Hunting proved to be a sizeable hit. It also garnered several Oscar nominations, with the late Robin Williams picking up a Best Supporting Actor gong.

Also taking home Oscar gold for the movie were then-debutant screenwriters Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Their script earned them an Academy Award apiece, but whilst they’d had a lot of interest in their work, it was proving tricky to get someone to properly commit.

Not that there was a lack of interest. Damon and Affleck had several studios involved, and several were making offers to the pair. Yet they opted to go with Miramax, then run – with his brother – by producer Harvey Weinstein.

So why did they choose him over a big studio? Weinstein appeared on The Graham Norton Show in the UK last week, and explained all.

“Everyone in Hollywood wanted Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and the film”, he recalled to Norton. “In the meeting with them, I said ‘I only have one really big note on the script. About page 60, the two leads, both straight men, have a sex scene. What the hell is that?'”

And that was a good question.

For there was method to Affleck and Damon’s madness. “That’s the scene”, they explained to Weinstein, “we wrote to see if guys like you read the script, because every studio executive we went to hadn’t read it. You’re the only guy who brought it up, so you get the movie”.

Good Will Hunting would go on to gross over $200m worldwide, reportedly costing just $10m to make.

]]>http://www.mattdamonfan.net/movie-news/good-will-hunting/the-hidden-secret-on-page-60-of-good-will-huntings-script/feed/0Gallery Updates: Ocean’s 13http://www.mattdamonfan.net/movie-news/oceans-thirtheen/gallery-updates-oceans-13/
http://www.mattdamonfan.net/movie-news/oceans-thirtheen/gallery-updates-oceans-13/#commentsThu, 03 Feb 2011 00:58:35 +0000http://www.mattdamonfan.net/?p=680 Screen Captures Good Will Hunting > Screen Captures]]>Screencaps from the third movie added. I also added the missing ones from Good Will Hunting that for some reason didn’t upload properly. Enjoy!